A Special Type of New York Mets 50th Anniversary

Today is a golden anniversary in the world of baseball, for 50 years ago today, the Mets unveiled a logo that has been with them virtually unchanged ever since.

The birthday logo.

It’s a pretty logo, but almost all the elements have some meaning to it. There’s a bridge in the foreground that’s supposed to represent the NL returning to New York City, which had been without a Senior Circuit team since the Dodgers and Giants left for California in the late 1950s.

The colors also harken back to the old Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants as blue and orange had been the primary team colors for each of them, respectively.

The circular logo shape and orange stitching on it are the most obvious symbolic elements. It represents a baseball, of course.

Some of the buildings also represent certain city spots. The skyline features a church spire on the left because Brooklyn was apparently known for its churches. There is also the tallest building in Brooklyn back then, the Williamsburg Savings Bank. After all, Brooklyn was famously torn up about losing their Dodgers, so it makes sense to appeal to those fans. The logo also represents the Woolworth Building, Empire State Building and on the right the UN Building.

Designed by cartoonist Ray Gatto, the Mets club has thought enough of it to keep using it. Exactly fifty years after its debut as Mets logo on Nov. 16, 1961, it’s still a symbol associated with the club.

Aside from that, many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is an event occurring X-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you just want to skim.

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Day-versaries

2,000 days since Derek Jeter gets his 2,000th career hit. It takes him 1,571 games.

2,000 days since Vladimir Guerrero hits his only career inside-the-park homer. It’s his 318th homer overall.

History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.